Learn about a home inspection.  An interview with Harlan Pierson of Dream Home Inspection a licensed home inspector.
Podcast Length 8:38 Minutes.

Tim Johnson:  Hi.  This is Tim Johnson of Traders Realty.  I am sitting with Harlan Pierson of Dream Home Inspections.  How are you?

Harlan Pierson:  I’m great, how are you Tim

Tim:  I’m doing well.  What is it that you do?

Harlan:  Well I do home inspections and radon testing for people that are buying and selling property / real estate.

Tim:  You work with home buyers and home sellers?

Harlan:  Yes.  Most of the time it’s for home buyers but I also do pre-listing inspections for people that may be selling their home and want to get an idea of what they can do to make some minor repairs to their home that an inspector will find. 

Tim:  What do you look for when you are inspecting a home?

Harlan:  I hate to say I look at pretty much everything but basically home inspection is a visual inspection, basically I can only report on what I can physically see while I am there.  But basically when I do inspections I do the exterior, look at the grading, siding, windows, roof look at the structure, loot at the plumbing, electrical, look at all the mechanicals in the home, look at the insulation and ventilation in the attic areas, of course the basement, crawl spaces, basically kind of give it an overall picture or snapshot, if you will, of that home at that particular time while I am there.

Tim:  You are a licensed home inspector?

Harlan:  Yes.  If you are doing home inspections in the state of Illinois you have to be licensed by the state of Illinois.

Tim:  What does your license limit you form doing?  Do you pull off covers off of electrical?

Harlan:  It’s kind of vague and I am actually am actually a member of ASHI which is the American Society of Home Inspectors. They have a certain code of ethics that we follow, so does the state of Illinois.  The state of Illinois says “easily accessible areas”, so yes, we do take covers off of electrical panels, I’ll take the cover off of a furnace to get a little more close look at that.  If there’s a cover and some screws to enter a crawl space or something like that, yes.  But if it’s an intrusive cover that is more involved for that inspection, normally we don’t do that. 

Tim:  And so you inspect chimneys?

Harlan:  We look at chimneys.  I look at pretty much overall the exterior portion of the chimney, look at the damper I may look at the interior of the fireplace, with that said, it’s just a visual inspection and you cant really see just a small percentage of that chimney so I’ll give my assessment to the best of my ability just by visually looking at it, but would always recommend a licensed chimney sweeps to further investigate it especially if it’s a wood burning fire place just to properly inspect it to make sure it’s working properly & safely.

Tim:  What are common issues that you find when inspecting a home? 

Harlan:  Common issues a lot of things I would say minor electrical problems like uncovered junction boxes, things like that, which is really a minor fix a lot of people don’t think about it, but it could be potentially a safety hazard and just a small few dollar item could  remedy that solution and make it a little safer.

Tim:  How are things like two-prong electrical outlets say something that is not quite up to code handled?

Harlan:  Because we are not code inspectors and the way I look at it is, if you are purchasing a home that was built in the 50s or 60s, if you will, a lot of them are still going to have two prong outlets so you cannot expect that house to be built to today’s standards.  So I would say if there’s a two-pong outlet you just want to know that it’s still a two-prong outlet, it is not grounded and basically you just want to check to see if its been wired properly.  A lot of times people will update things over the years they will take that two-prong outlet out, put a three-prong outlet in and basically all that does is it gives a false sense of security to the at home buyer saying that “Oh, this is a grounded outlet”, when it really isn’t.  As far as safety, it’s just a safety issue where you’re thinking it’s a grounded outlet when it’s really not.  The only other things that can happen is if you’re plugging in with our electronics that we have today, if you’re plugging in a high dollar computer, big screen tv or some electronics & you’re plugging a surge protector into that ungrounded ungrounded three-prong outlet, & you’re plugging your equipment into that surge protector, you do not really protect your equipment against lightening strike – that surge protector has to have a grounded outlet to work properly.  So, that’s probably the biggest thing I see is customers have a false sense of security by seeing a three-prong outlet that not really properly grounded.

Tim:  OK – what are the costs involved with a home inspection?

Harlan:  Well, they vary from home inspector to home inspector.  I charge $250 for my home inspections.  The home inspections I do, I usually tell people it takes 2-3 hours.  And I strongly encourage the buyers to be there present during the home inspection, because not only am I looking for problems, I can also maybe point out some maintenance issues or maintenance tips that they can do to better protect their investment that they’re getting into.  The inspections I do, I do it on a laptop which I take to the job site & I fill out the report on the jobsite as I go along and take digital photographs of different items of the report and usually go over the report with the homeowner or buyer at that time.  And then I usually go home and insert the photos, kind of clean up the report, go over it and usually email it to the client either that day or the following day.

Tim:  How often do you see pre-listing inspections happening and what are their advantages?

Harlan:  Not very often, but once in a while.  In my opinion, a pre-listing inspection actually, and I’m not a realtor, but for me to go in and do that inspection, it gives an opportunity for the seller to fix any minor problems and basically have a little bit more control of the sale of their property instead of putting it on eh market and having an inspector come in and maybe do a little more nit-picking than they should and then they’re demanding more and more and wanting to pay less for their house, it kind of gives more control to the buyer than the seller.  So, from my standpoint of view a pre-listing inspection is just a valuable tool that helps give the seller more control of that property because they’re able to warrant off some of those things ahead of time. 

Tim:  I’m Tim Johnson of Traders Realty.  I am sitting with Harlan Pierson of Dream Home Inspections.  We’re talking about Whole House Inspections.  If someone wants to get ahold of you, what’s the best way to reach you?

Harlan:  Well, they can go to my website, www.dreamhome.net & request an inspection that way, or the best way to get ahold of me is my cell phone – 309-376-6210.

Tim:  Have a good day.